This is so funny! I actually booked this exact fare about a week ago, but not as a mileage run. I was looking to go to Bangkok in January and this fare had better dates (for me) and was about $90 cheaper. (Of course, I'll use at least that much to get from HKG to BKK, but I'll get a chance to see Hong Kong first...)

This is so funny! I actually booked this exact fare about a week ago, but not as a mileage run. I was looking to go to Bangkok in January and this fare had better dates (for me) and was about $90 cheaper. (Of course, I'll use at least that much to get from HKG to BKK, but I'll get a chance to see Hong Kong first...)

It would have been nice if you (hard2please) posted it about a week ago even in the "Good Deals" thread then I would have booked the JetBlue 12/12/12 $12 fare as a reposition flight to SEA to take advantage of this HKG fare! :-(

It would have been nice if you (hard2please) posted it about a week ago even in the "Good Deals" thread then I would have booked the JetBlue 12/12/12 $12 fare as a reposition flight to SEA to take advantage of this HKG fare! :-(

Thank you, OP, for posting!

Sorry, it never occurred to me to post this fare; it didn't seem that great compared to other fares that are posted here. Certainly not worth repositioning for (who could have forseen that $12 fare?)

Hmm, I missed seeing that this thread was here when I posted this fare in the Good Deals thread. The inventory loaded for this fare has gone from "a few scattered dates" to available on what I'd say is the majority of the dates when this fare is valid. Most of it mid-Jan through end of April, Sunday through Thursday.

There are even routes available on select dates via SFO-HNL-GUM outbound, NRT-LAX on the return, which net 17,200 miles for a CPM of about 4.7˘. Routing via LAX puts you on the 787 when it takes over that route if that's of interest.

Hmm, I missed seeing that this thread was here when I posted this fare in the Good Deals thread. The inventory loaded for this fare has gone from "a few scattered dates" to available on what I'd say is the majority of the dates when this fare is valid. Most of it mid-Jan through end of April, Sunday through Thursday.

There are even routes available on select dates via SFO-HNL-GUM outbound, NRT-LAX on the return, which net 17,200 miles for a CPM of about 4.7˘. Routing via LAX puts you on the 787 when it takes over that route if that's of interest.

Interesting to hear, "The inventory loaded for this fare has gone from 'a few scattered dates' to available on what I'd say is the majority of the dates when this fare is valid." That means that UA wasn't seeing their targets met for number of seats sold, so they (or their computers) decided to release more cheap seats inventory rather than see those seats go unsold. (Bad business to let seats go unsold, even if they must "discount" them to get them sold.)

So if one has an itinerary in mind, they should re-check the fares that were too high previously, because there is the possibility that cheaper seats will open? I see hugely expensive fares to HNL in Jan and Feb except for one day each month that are very low, so I should keep looking to see if UA gives up on selling seats at those lofty prices and offers them cheaper? What are the websites that will watch for cheaper fares for a given intercity pair on a particular airline? (It's all about re-qualifying as a UA elite for me.)

We don't know how the OP searched for this fare—perhaps forming an opinion by the number red/orange highlighted "lowest priced days" appearing on the calendar at ITA, or hunting/pecking on united.com, or by some other means. What I did was to read the fare rules for the date range it was valid, then re-ran my ITA search using the specific fare bucket to see when the fare was offered in that period.

Re-checking fares is always, always, a good idea. Any number of websites will send you general fare alerts when a fare is published for a particular city pair, but none of the popular free ones I'm familiar with will narrow it down to the level you appear to want. Specialized sites, such as ExpertFlyer, are able, as far as I know, to send you alerts when specific inventory becomes available on specific dates. Perhaps others more familiar with EF and KVS could pipe in with what those sites offer for alerts in more detail (I don't use them myself).

It depends on who you're crediting your miles to. Be careful with ANA. The only reason I didn't choose the routing with the 787 on my upcoming trip to HKG was that it wouldn't credit 100% to USAirways I would love to have tried out the 787 on this trip.